A Historical Study of Sports Festivals in Rural Area of Punjab

International Journal of Physiology, Nutrition and Physical Education 2018; 3(2): 2221-2222

Charnjit Kaur Charnjit Kaur and Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Battan Research Scholar, Department of Physical Education, Guru Abstract Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda, Punjab, India The purpose of the present study was to know about the history and development of sports festival in rural area of Punjab. There are many sports festival is celebrated in Punjab but The Guru Nanak Dr Kuldeep Kumar Battan Tournaments is popular sports festival in Punjab. The Guru Nanak Tournaments was organized in 1942 Assistant Professor, Department with the efforts of teacher Madan Singh. For this purpose this sports festival was selected. This of Physical Education, Guru tournament was started at kheri salabatpur, Roper. The researcher has collected the data through primary Kashi University,, Talwandi and secondary sources. This was used interview and written material as standard tools. After the data Sabo, Bathinda, Punjab, India collection researcher was found that the Guru Nanak Tournaments is most popular rural sports festival in Punjab. The participation level is very high. In this sports festival traditional and folk culture are equally involved.

Keywords: Rural Sports, Sports festival, folk culture. Traditional culture.

Introduction History Punjab state is the north-western part of India has great strategic importance for India. It shares boundary with Pakistan in the west, with Jammu and Kashmir in the North, with Himachal

Pardesh in the north-east and with Haryana and Rajasthan in the south. Punjab state is divided into three major regions which are The Majha, Malwa and Doaba. The Majha includes the border districts of Amristar and Gurdaspur. Its boundaries have been determined by the two rivers-the Ravi and the Beas. The Doaba region includes the districts of Jalandhar Kapurthala, Nawanshahar and Hoshiarpur. It is located between the Beas and Sutlej rivers. The Malwa

region includes the district is of Patiala, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Rope Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Moga, Mansa. Its south western part is sandy. (Bhupinder singh 2010) [1].

Sports Festivals

Festivals are not new to Punjab. The Vedic People used to celebrate a sports festival in social gathering with religious background. The term used for this festivity was “Samana”. There were chariot and horse race. Punjabi Culture and these festivals have an inseparable relation. It is a self-depicting picture of Punjabi culture. Most of the fairs are found to be seen in rural areas. Sports have been the main charm of these festivals since beginning Kabaddi, Wrestling

Sauchi etc are mainly played in these festivals Games were considered a kind of recreation which played a vital role in the development of men’s personality. Today in almost 7000 villages in Punjab in one decade or the other rural sports competitions are being held. Rural folk organize them. In fact these village sports have opened the floodgates of village development. Before Independence in 1947 major importance was given

only to Kabaddi and wrestling, after Independence the circle of rural sports also got widened. The rustic "Khido Khaoondi" (literally a ball made out of cuttings of cloth and a stick twisted Corresponding Author: at the end like a flat hockey and players from villages, having no facilities beyond uneven Charnjit Kaur grounds to play began to dominate in the game. Twelve of our country’s greatest hockey Research Scholar, Department of players have come out of a single village called SANSARPUR in Jalandhar District. Physical Education, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, The rural populations of India, comprising about 70 per cent of the country’s total population Bathinda, Punjab, India with a higher level of physical fitness, physiological and morphological status with respect to ~ 2221 ~ International Journal of Physiology, Nutrition and Physical Education

the others, seem to be a pillar of strength in the Country’s ‘Evidence of sensible Things’ in Aristotle,’’ Canadian sports arena. To tap hidden talents for participation the journal of History of sports and physical education, 1977. present study is an attempt to sensitize and familiarize people with the importance of these famous sports festivals in Punjab.

Aim of Study • To highlight the various sports and traditional events which are organized in these rural sports festival. • To eases the advent of rural sports festival. • To examine how rural sports festival affects the sports of adjoining areas.

Procedure For this study the researcher was select the rural sports festivals of Roper Disst, Punjab state. Firstly researchers found the following popular rural sports festivals in selected area. Guru Nanak Tournaments (from 1942 to till). kheri salabatpur, Roper. Then contact with organization committee of particular tournaments. Researcher collect the data from primary and secondary sources. The interview with committee members and other releted documents e.g. magzine, newspapers, book, village library were tools of this study.

Result The Guru Nanak Tournaments was organized in 1942 with the efforts of teacher Madan Singh and his team members. Firstly they organized races and tug of war events of primary children and distributed the sweets among all participants. After that they decided that this type of tournaments should be organized every year. After that this tournaments are organized every year with new events. All sportsmen of Punjab and adjoining state are involve in this championship and compit with each other. Now this tournaments is very popular event in Punjab as well as nearby.

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